Top Murphy aide leaving

One of Gov. Phil Murphy’s top aides will depart the governor’s office tomorrow.

Scarlett Rajski Martin, who is the governor’s director of appointments, is expected to take another post in the Murphy administration. Sources say she is in line to join the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, where Al Alvarez resigned last week.

One source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the move was being made at the direction of Murphy’s chief of staff, Pete Cammarano.

The appointments director posts is a powerful one. Rajski Martin had responsibility for scrutinizing candidates for judges, county prosecutors, members of commissions and authorities, and old-fashioned patronage jobs.

Rajski Martin a former aide to U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, worked for Bill Castner at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey during a heated battle over the state budget in 2017. She grew up in Perth Amboy and interned for Menendez in college. She has also worked as a project manager at the Gibbons law firm, at Michael Kempner’s public affairs firm, MWW, and for the American Institute of CPA’s.